Lighting: Health Hazards

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has  (a) commissioned and  (b) evaluated on the effect of compact fluorescent lightbulbs on people suffering from Meniere's disease.

Ann Keen: holding answer 21 February 2008
	 The Department has not commissioned any research into the effects of compact fluorescent light bulbs on those living with Meniere's disease.

Maternity Services: Finance

Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the NHS budget was spent on maternity services in 2006-07.

Ann Keen: holding answer 20 February 2008
	Estimates of national health service expenditure on maternity and reproductive health are available from programme budgeting returns. In the 2006-07 financial year estimated gross NHS expenditure on maternity and reproductive health was £2.9 billion, accounting for 3.5 per cent. of total expenditure.

NHS

Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many  (a) hospitals and  (b) NHS organisations Ministers in his Department have visited since taking up their posts.

Ben Bradshaw: The information is as follows.
	
		
			  Minister  Hospitals  NHS organisations 
			 Secretary of State for Health (Alan Johnson)(1) 25 11 
			 Minister of State for Health Services (Ben Bradshaw)(1) 11 13 
			 Minister of State for Public Health (Dawn Primarolo)(1) 0 9 
			 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Services (Ann Keen)(1) 12 9 
			 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Care Services (Ivan Lewis)(2) 9 3 
			 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lord Darzi)(1) 12 9 
			 (1 )Between taking up post in June 2007 and February 2008 (2 )Between taking up post in June 2006 and February 2008

NHS: Finance

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much loan interest  (a) the West Sussex Primary Care Trust and  (b) each of the hospital trusts in West Sussex paid back to the NHS in each of the last three years.

Ben Bradshaw: Information on interest paid on loans by primary care trusts is not collected centrally.
	The following table sets out the interest paid by national health service trusts in Sussex in 2006-07. Information for earlier years was not collected centrally.
	
		
			  Interest paid on loans by NHS trusts in Sussex, 2006-07 
			  NHS trust  £000 
			 Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals 39 
			 East Sussex Hospitals 5 
			 Surrey and Sussex Healthcare 68 
			 The Royal West Sussex 29 
			 Worthing and Southlands Hospitals 0 
			 Sussex Partnership 0 
			  Note: This information was not collected prior to 2006-07.  Source: Audited summarisation schedules of the NHS trusts 2006-07.

NHS: Public Participation

Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the amount of work undertaken by  (a) community health councils,  (b) patient involvement forums and  (c) local involvement networks.

Ann Keen: The rationale for arrangements to strengthen the voice of local people is to widen and broaden peoples influence over their services, rather than it being a reflection on the amount or quality of the work undertaken by Community Health Councils (CHCs) and patient and public involvement (PPI) forums.
	We know from listening to people during the review of patient and public involvement that more people want to have a greater say about their local services. It is no longer appropriate to have a PPI system which is based around scrutiny of individual services. The new local involvement networks will be able to consider both health and social care, so that PPI can be joined up across the entire patient journey. Crucially, we want more people involved having influence in different ways according to their lifestyle, experience and skills. We will build on the existing experience and knowledge from patients' forums.

NHS: Public Participation

Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the former community health councils and their corresponding patient forums and local involvement networks.

Ann Keen: There were 184 Community Health Councils (CHC) and in the main reflected local authority boundaries, although there were a number of exceptions to this rule.
	There is no direct correlation between the areas covered by CHCs and patient and public involvement forums, as forums relate to national health service organisations rather than a specific geographical area.
	There will be 150 local involvement networks corresponding exactly to the number of local authorities with social services responsibilities.

NHS: Recruitment

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of advertisements for IT jobs working within the NHS specified that the applicant needed NHS IT experience in the latest period for which figures are available.

Ann Keen: holding answer 21 February 2008
	NHS Jobs does not collect information on the content of individual vacancy listings.

Obstetrics: Screening

Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the cost of adding screening for vasa praevia to standard prenatal testing;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the feasibility of adding screening for vasa praevia to standard prenatal testing;
	(3)  how many people died from vasa praevia in each year since 2001.

Ann Keen: holding answer 22 February 2008
	 Routine screening for Vasa Praevia is not available in hospitals in England. This is because it is a technically difficult condition to detect, even for a highly skilled ultrasonographer with the appropriate specialist equipment (for example, a colour Doppler scanner). Therefore, routine screening for vasa praevia is not currently advocated by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) or recommended by the National Screening Committee (NSC). Should the RCOG change its advice we will consider this and refer it to the NSC.
	The total number of deaths which mentions vasa praevia on the death certificate in England and Wales for 2001 to 2005 (the most recent years for which figures are available) are shown in the following table.
	All of these deaths were in neonates, that is babies under 28 days of age:
	
		
			   Neonatal deaths 
			 2001 1 
			 2002 0 
			 2003 2 
			 2004 1 
			 2005 0 
			  Notes: 1. Figures for 2001-05 were extracted using the International Classification of Diseases ICD 10th revision code P02.6 2. The database of deaths in England and Wales was searched for deaths in 2001-05 with any mention of the ICD-10 codes 069.4, 'Labour and delivery complicated by vasa praevia' (maternal code) or P02.6 'Fetus and Newborn affected by other and unspecified conditions of umbilical cord'. The text of the certificates with P02.6 was then searched for the term 'vasa praevia'. 3. Data on stillbirths have not been included.  Source: Office for National Statistics

Palliative Care: Children

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been included in primary care trust allocations for 2008-09 in order to enable them to meet the new children's palliative care strategy in (i) building a sustainable service of palliative care networks, including children's hospice services and (ii) supporting community nursing teams; and if he will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: General allocations to primary care trusts (PCTs) are not broken down into funding for individual services. It is for PCTs to decide how best to resource the priorities set out in the national health service operating framework for 2008-09.
	In section two of the operating framework under 'Priorities' it states
	"disabled children: identifying actions and setting local targets on improving the experience of, and ranges of services for, children with disabilities and complex health needs and their families. This includes significantly increasing the range of short breaks, improving the quality and experience of palliative care services, improving access to therapies and supporting effective transition to adult services."
	On 19 February, we launched a first ever national strategy for children's palliative care 'Better Care: Better Lives'. The strategy will assist local commissioners, providers and regulators in will devising local strategies to enable every child and young person with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition access to high-quality, family centred, sustainable care and support with services provided in a setting of choice according to the child's and family's wishes. It sets out clear expectations for improving choice, access and continuity of care, and seeks to place palliative care at the centre of local children's service provision.
	We also announced an additional £20 million in funding to enable the children's hospices and hospice at home grant to continue in 2009-10 and 2010-11 with £10 million available in each year.

Patient Choice Schemes

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of hours per week GPs spent using the Choose and Book system in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Ben Bradshaw: The Department does not collect information centrally on the number of hours per week general practitioners spend using Choose and Book.
	Benchmarked timings have been published showing the average length of time taken to use Choose and Book when it is correctly configured.
	to log on to the system takes about 9 seconds;
	to generate an appointment request takes about 38 seconds; or
	to book an appointment takes 47 seconds.
	These times are how long it takes the computers to respond, and do not take into account the time required for the clinical and booking conversation that is needed with the patient.

Post-Mortems: Children

David Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many post-mortem examinations were carried out on children aged between five and 15 years in each coroner's district in each of the last five years.

Ben Bradshaw: The information is not available in the format requested. The Office for National Statistics collects data on the deaths of children in England aged between five and 15 years where a post mortem examination has been carried out. It is not broken down by coroner's district. The information available is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Death registrations in England by post mortem type, ages 5 to 15( 1) 
			   Post mortem authorised by a coroner  Post mortem authorised by a doctor  Not known by whom post mortem authorised 
			 2006 493 22 4 
			 2005 533 18 5 
			 2004 507 18 1 
			 2003 579 19 2 
			 2002 571 25 4 
			 (1) Data from the Office for National Statistics 
		
	
	Information is not collected centrally on how many of those post mortem examinations were carried out by paediatric pathologists.